Posts Tagged ‘Minchin’

Senator Minchin had a great op-ed about Rudd’s plans to slow down our internet and institute Orwellian Regulatory Standards in today’s Sydney Morning Herald:

Big Brother Internet Filter Plan Insults Parents

Underlying the Rudd Government’s plan to screen the internet is an offensive message: that parents cannot be trusted to mind their children online.

Adult supervision should be front and centre of the effort to improve online safety, a responsibility accepted by most parents, grandparents, teachers and carers. But the Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy, seems to think differently: filtering content at internet service provider level is “central to the Government’s plan to make the internet a safer place for children”.

No decent Australian would argue against the broad aim of making the online world as safe as possible. But Labor’s fixation with compulsory, centralised filtering – which tells parents they are incapable of protecting their children – is not the answer.

He also notes that “Senator Conroy has remained cryptic and vague, raising suspicion by talking about filtering not just illegal material, but also “unwanted” content that he refuses to specify.”

“I have always considered the Liberal Party a centrist party, and that it exhibited those traits during the last period of federal government (“Liberals must move to the centre or die – Pyne”, January 13). It would seem that Christopher Pyne is advocating a significant move to the left, rather than to the centre.

Mr Pyne appears to want the Liberal Party to become a greens party, which is not consistent with its history and philosophy, nor with its support base, and is not a particularly sensible recipe for returning to government.

The path proposed by Mr Pyne is the one taken by some state Liberal oppositions over the past decade, with disappointing results.

I commend Mr Pyne on his contribution to the debate, but there are many of us who respectfully disagree with his conclusions.